Trip to and in Indonesia

This morning we leave for Lombok with Batik air. We'll be trekking Rinjani - the third tallest volcano in Indonesia and then scuba diving in Gili before we cross the strait to Padang Bai Bali for another diving trip.

Batik air check-in was very smooth. the check in officer only glances at the pcr test status on the application. No other checks
Interestingly, we did a PCR test on October 26th. The results were completed on 27th and immediately appeared in the pedulilindungi application, but with the date of 27 October.
Last nigh, we also completed the domestic e-hac, We scanned the QR code of our boarding pass for e-hac. My seat number is correctly displayed in the app but the carrier is wrongly displayed as "car" instead of airplane. I'm not able to correct it. Took some time to complete it, and nobody check our e-hac at the airport.
 
Landed at LOP on time. They scan the QR code from E-hac. No issue with incorrect carrier type in the e-hac description.
 
Pos 2 Rinjani, 1512 m ASL.

IMG_20211029_090436.jpg
 
I hope you're still wearing a mask and keeping 3m away from your fellow travelers
Nobody wear mask during the trekking. I don't think wise to use mask when you hike to the third tallest mountain in Indonesia.
No way to always keep 3 m distance particularly at narrow ridge and small area at the summit
 
Let me continue updating and sharing our Mt. Rinjani trekking.
Mt.
Mount Rinjani, at 3,726 meters, is the country’s second highest volcano in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).
After 6 hours trekking, we reached the Sembalun crater rim where we camped and got rest few hours before summit hiking.

2021-11-11_12-34-02.jpg

And enjoy our dinner with stunning sunset.

2021-11-11_12-25-51.jpg
 
Wake very early , then start trekking to summit at 02:00 am.
After strenuous 4 hours (at least for us - total both of us is more than 110 years old) trekking, we reached the summit 3726m ASL

2021-11-11_12-24-53.jpg


2021-11-11_12-55-06.jpg
 
After 3 hours trekking down, we reached our camp at 2600m asl. Took a nap for couples hours, had a lunch and then we moved down to the Segara anakan crater lake at 2000m asl - very steep rocky trek, more difficult and dangerous than summit hiking, torturing our old knees for almost 4 hours. For us, going up is more manageable than going down.
Stay one more night here.

2021-11-11_01-16-38.jpg

2021-11-11_01-16-24.jpg
 
Next day, after breakfast we went up again to Senaru crater rim at 2605m asl. We moved very slow due to frequent rock slide on the trekking path. Took almost 5 hours to get there.
The view from the rim was very beautiful. Here, we camped for our last night at Rinjani.
2021-11-11_01-17-07.jpg

2021-11-11_09-35-56.jpg
 
Next day, we finalized our Rinjani trekking at Senaru village. More than half of the trek through dense rainforest jungle, long trek but not steep. supposed o be easy Unfortunately, it was raining most of the time,. with our wobbly legs, took almost 7 hours. We were also accompanied with few fat leeches - at least 3 inside my pant.

So, total 4 days/3nights trip excluding overnight at Rinjani lodge hotel on arrival day, 36 km trekking distance, 4000m elevation gain, 3600m elevation loss.

The trip organizer, Green Rinjani did great job for us, from airport pick up, best view accomodation at Rinjani lodge overlooking stunning Senaru valley and certainly the Rinjani trekking adventure.
The team, consist of Syahril (guide) and three porters (murdi, sultan and Nas) provided the best service and a luxury. Good quality tent, great food, drinking water, tea/coffee, table and chair, and toilet tent are always available.

More over, something that we really respect,, they clean the camping and bring back all rubbish including (sadly) other rubbish from unresponsible trekkers.
Hope other trekking organizer follow their paths.
Kudos to the team.

Late afternoon, with a chartered boat from Nara bay, we crossed to Gili air. 10 minutes journey cost us Rp. 250K.

Nor much too say about Gili air. Very quiet, almost dead. Most of accomodations, restaurant and dive center are close.

We stayed at Gili air for two nights only, had 4 dives. Nothing special. Just okay for a warming up before another dive trip in Bali
Here is few shots from Gili island.



 
Gili islands is not really our favourite destinations. The diving there is just okay. The dive center mostly cater fun dives. The dive guide is good for typical fun dive but not for underwater photography.
We decided to left one day earlier than our original plan, crossing Lombok strait with fast boat to Padang Bai, Bali.
Rapid antigen test is required for traveling with fast boat / Ferry.
Many people talk about big bussines on PCR test and complain on excessive.
With the requirements of rapid antigen test on almost all aspect, this is even much bigger money and massive profit taking.
The cost of antigen test in Lombok is Rp. 125,000 and Rp. 99,000 in Bali.
The price of antigen test kit is less than 1 USD for bulk quantity.
Probably million test per day. Where the money goes?
 
Next day, we finalized our Rinjani trekking at Senaru village. More than half of the trek through dense rainforest jungle, long trek but not steep. supposed o be easy Unfortunately, it was raining most of the time,. with our wobbly legs, took almost 7 hours. We were also accompanied with few fat leeches - at least 3 inside my pant.

So, total 4 days/3nights trip excluding overnight at Rinjani lodge hotel on arrival day, 36 km trekking distance, 4000m elevation gain, 3600m elevation loss.

The trip organizer, Green Rinjani did great job for us, from airport pick up, best view accomodation at Rinjani lodge overlooking stunning Senaru valley and certainly the Rinjani trekking adventure.
The team, consist of Syahril (guide) and three porters (murdi, sultan and Nas) provided the best service and a luxury. Good quality tent, great food, drinking water, tea/coffee, table and chair, and toilet tent are always available.

More over, something that we really respect,, they clean the camping and bring back all rubbish including (sadly) other rubbish from unresponsible trekkers.
Hope other trekking organizer follow their paths.
Kudos to the team.

Late afternoon, with a chartered boat from Nara bay, we crossed to Gili air. 10 minutes journey cost us Rp. 250K.

Nor much too say about Gili air. Very quiet, almost dead. Most of accomodations, restaurant and dive center are close.

We stayed at Gili air for two nights only, had 4 dives. Nothing special. Just okay for a warming up before another dive trip in Bali
Here is few shots from Gili island.



Oh, I always love your underwater pics.
 
Padangbai, a small coastal town is our other favourite diving destination in Bali. We know personally most of dive centers in the area.
Very sad to see many of them (particularly who rely on foreign customer) not able to operate daily or even they have to close for unspecified time.
Our favourite hotel in the area - Puri Rai - is also closed.
In Padangbai, we dived with Widana Dive service, a very small outlet, the one that still operate daily (and busy during weekends) - very basic and humble, more like a street stall rather than a dive center. However, their service is five stars.
I can say, most of underwater macro photographer knows him and use their service to find very small animals in Padangbai. The smaller, the better they are. We talk about 5mm and smaller. Pak widana himself is an avid underwater photographer. His assistant, Didu is equally as good as him to find small critters.
For macro, typically we dived at very small area, some time less than 100m2. Many dive centers limit the dive time to 1 hour or even 45 minutes. Here, no time limitations. We often dived more than 75 minutes.
Few shots from Padangbai





 
And a pleasant surprise at bias tugel dive site - Purple Paddle-Flap Scorpionfish (Rhinopias eschmeyeri).l - the holy grail of muck diving.


We could not find this fish on our visit February 2020. The guide also told me that they haven't seen for several months and they never see at this dive site.
Small issue here; my macro lens is too strong, for anything larger than 15cm. My camera set-up was for smaller object 5cm and less.
I had to shoot from a relatively long distance (50 cm) which is not good if the water is not very clear.
I really want to take the picture of this fish when yawning. Unfortunately, I had been waiting for 10 minutes, until 1 minute before deco, no yawning. I gave up.
 
Last edited:
Tulamben

Our next destination in is Tulamben. A small fishing village, north east Bali, probably the most crowded dive destination in Indonesia.
It's our most favourite destinations we regularly visit since 2003 - practically almost every year.
My wife and daughters completed their Padi open water course in Tulamben.

Similar like last year, we stayed at Puri Madha, one of very few hotels, dive center and restaurant that still operating daily. Mainly due to their main customer is local divers and their location is the best in Tulamben: just 30 meters away from the liberty wreck. Moreover, Puri Madha is also pocket friendly.
In fact, they could be very busy during weekend.

Our routine is always start with early morning diving at the wreck or slope, breakfast and then another two dives at more remote sites : seraya, Melasti and kubu.

Here few shots at the wreck

 
Last edited:
Not far from the liberty wreck is the Coral Garden, a shallow reef stretch for about 150 meters along the shore of Tulamben Bay.

One of the unique features of this site are the artificial reef project including sunken Balinese statues that are scattered around the area, including figures of Buddha and various Hindu gods. These "artistic" and 'instagramable" structures serve as an artificial reef, attracting a variety of marine life.
Honestly, I don't like these artificial reef - too artificial, not natural at all. However, many people like this shallow site (3 - 15m), very popular for fun diving, new divers and snorkeller.
on the right current direction, it possible to drift dive from coral garden to the wreck. That's what we did.
Here few shots from the corral garden, Tulamben.


They even sunk a pedicab

 
Amazing photos @Wisnu ! Just a quick tip, you don't need to embed all photos. The flickr integration lets us browse all your pics by using the left and right buttons on the picture themselves (the buttons appear when you hover the mouse on the picture).
 
Amazing photos @Wisnu ! Just a quick tip, you don't need to embed all photos. The flickr integration lets us browse all your pics by using the left and right buttons on the picture themselves (the buttons appear when you hover the mouse on the picture).
Thanks @El_Goretto
I use my mobile phone, no mouse. However, I just noticed the left and right arrow on each picture appear few seconds.
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Latest Activity

New posts Latest threads

Online Now

No members online now.

Newest Members

Forum Statistics

Threads
5,966
Messages
97,385
Members
3,035
Latest member
Les 819
Back
Top Bottom